200-Year-Old Shipwreck Champagne Sold at Auction to Anonymous Internet Bidder

Auctioneer John Kapon from Acker Merrall & Condit stands next to a box containing a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne. in Mariehamn, Finland, Friday June 3, 2011. Finnish officials say an Internet bidder has paid 54,000 euro ($78,235) for two bottles of 200-year-old champagne found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Auctioneers in Mariehamn say that an anonymous buyer from Singapore paid a world-record price of 30,000 euro for a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and 24,000 euro for a bottle of Juglar. Both bottles are believed to be the oldest preserved examples of their respective brands. AP Photo/Lehtikuva, Sari Gustafsson.

MARIEHAMN (AP).- An anonymous Internet bidder on Friday paid 54,000 ($78,200) for two bottles of 200-year-old Champagne salvaged from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, auction organizers said.

The buyer from Singapore paid a world-record price of 30,000 for a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and 24,000 for a bottle of Juglar. Both bottles are believed to be the oldest preserved examples of their respective brands. The buyers identity was not revealed.

The auction was held in the capital of the autonomous Aland Islands, a Finnish archipelago situated between Sweden and Finland, after divers found a shipwreck with Champagne and beer just south of the islands in July last year.

Researchers believe the ship was probably en route from northern Germany to the west coast of Finland when it sank in the first half of the 1800s.

Divers found 145 intact bottles in the wreck that lies some 165 feet (50 meters) deep in total darkness and a constant cool temperature  an environment experts say is the main reason the bubbly kept in such good condition. There were 94 bottles of Juglar, a now-defunct champagne house, 46 bottles of Veuve Clicquot and four Heidsiecks.

John Kapon, auctioneer at the event, said the buyer now owns a piece of history.

"This bottle was from the times of Napoleon and it's just something truly special," said Kapon, who is CEO of Acker Merrall & Condit.

Although connoisseurs haven't precisely been able to date the golden drink they say it is from the early 19th century.

The proceeds from the auction will go to marine environment charity projects, organizers said.